Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Yesterday I received two of Rosanna's beautiful baskets in the mail. They are just the sweetest things. I told hubby they came from Italy and he said, "Ahh, Prada!" and they are so beautifully made they could be!

Rosanna also sent some beautiful beads from Brazil - ready made vases! And two of the tiniest little glass teapots (about 17mm high!). I remember having some glass animals made in the same style when I was little.

Thank you Rosanna, all these lovely gifts will help fill up my dollhouse for the show so hopefully anyone looking at it will notice all the pretty things and not the fact that the house isn't quite finished. LOL!

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Finally! Here is my little garden! I would like to say it is finished but I still have more ideas for things that could go in it...so if I add anything more I'll have to show it to you again later. Several members of our club have made these gardens from the same basic design, with the brick wall at the back and the 'shed' with the door at one end. However, every garden is completely different.This little corner is, I think, my most favourite part, maybe because I LOVE that little bucket Sylvia sent me so much!

My nephew and neices had a look at the garden and their favourite thing was the gate!

Little turtle. That hyacinth cost me a small fortune, I bought it before Sylvia had shown me how to make them.

See the little nest in the blossom tree, there's another one on top of the wall between some bricks on the other side of the gate.

Someone's been skipping here and left her shoes.

When Liberty heard me say I was going to make a kite to go in the tree, she jumped up and said, "I'll make you a kite mum"! And so she did, all I helped her with was the tail. She has now relocated it to her own dollhouse because she didn't think I needed two kites!

A birds eye view.

Well, I hope you enjoyed your little tour. I'll do another post later in the week and tell you how I made some of the things in the garden, so if you want to know where anything came from just ask!

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

A couple of days ago I was feeling sorry for myself because it was the school holidays, it was freezing cold and raining and hubby was going away for the week...so imagine my delight at getting goodies in the mail from Sylvia twice this week!!

Just after Easter Sylvia told me she was going to make something special for me, she sent me a photo last week of what she had made and had a good laugh to herself because there was no way I could tell what it was from the photo. Well, today it arrived and look at this!!!!!

This is absolutely the most beautiful piece of dollhouse furniture I have. And it is even more beautiful because it was hand-made for me by a dear friend. I am just speechless with gratitude. look it even has cherubs on it!! I have a lot of cherubs in my 1:1 house.Sylvia also made little cushions, a sweet little carry-box (Liberty calls it 'a girls toolbox'), some wonderful rustic shutters and a gorgeous little Bessie Pease Gutmann picture - I love her artwork.

There was also something special in the box for Liberty but we'll have to show you that tomorrow. It was something to make but it didn't get made today because, although she was desperate to make it, she hastily put it away when her cousins arrived!And here are the goodies from the other package. I've had to take this pic at night time with the flash which is not ideal. Look at the delicate candle sconce and mirror - my first ever 'Reutter Porcelain'.

The sweet little open book with the rose in it - might just have to try and make one of those! And the sweetest little 'tin' sign that Sylvia made which came last week - Sylvia is the absolute master of 'vintage tin'.

Oh, and that gorgeous card there has the most unbelieveable message in it from Sylvia, I won't tell you what it says yet, but although Sylvia is around the same age as me I am sure you will agree she IS my Fairy Godmother!

Saturday, April 18, 2009

I've been having a little bit of fun making these canisters. I was inspired by all the beautiful vintage enamelware that dear Sylvia sent me. Now I know Sans will ask me how I made them so here's what I used (no toothpaste caps Sans LOL!):

A piece of dowel (I found it in the garage), a button and a bead!! Couldn't be easier! I printed little pictures to stick on them. I filled the holes in the buttons with glue once I had stuck them onto the dowel. I added a bit of paint to make them look old, and have tried really hard to make them rusty like Sylvia's but I still haven't perfected her amazing technique.

I only have a mitre box at home so some of the canisters are a bit wonky, which hopefully just adds to their vintage charm! It's miniatures club in the weekend so I'm going to take along some dowel in different sizes and cut up a whole lot of canisters on the table saw. They're actually quite fun to make!

Friday, April 17, 2009

A couple of days ago Liberty and I received some more lovely mail! This time from Sans in Singapore. In the package was the tiniest Eiffel tower! SO tiny, just 21mm (7/8 inch) tall! I had told Sans I was looking for one here but had only ever found one as part of a necklace and it was ridiculously expensive. Everyone who sees this Eiffel tower is just blown away by how small it is. She also included two sweet little candles (you can see one up there in the new blog header by the blue jug.) A while ago Sans sent me some flowers. I used the yellow paeony looking ones in the basket arrangement on the table here. In the latest package there were some tiny flowers that I have 'planted' in my little garden. (Rosanna - the garden should be finished this weekend, then I will reveal all! LOL!) Some of the large flowers had holes in them so they could be used as beads, Liberty has had great fun making jewellery!

There were hairclips for Liberty which she loved so much she's gone to sleep in them and a little porcelain doll - which Liberty wasn't too sure about at first but today it had joined her family of dolls and was having a great time! LOL! I'm sorry I don't have pics of everything, today turned into a crazy day. We unexpectedly ended up at the cousins for dinner and got back home way later than I thought we would with one very tired and upset Liberty! I can only hope she will actually sleep in tomorrow - something she rarely does!

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Liberty was very unhappy to be putting Sylvia's beautiful Easter eggs away now that Easter is over. However, we did get a lovely little extra Easter suprise in the mail on Tuesday - one of Rosanna's sweet little Easter baskets, complete with mini eggs and cookies. How pretty is that basket?!

Sunday, April 12, 2009

The other day I was sitting here thinking about all the lovely things Sylvia and Marlies make out of paper and cardboard and I thought maybe I should try something so...I looked around my 1:1 house for something that would be easy...and quick! I spied this old garden sieve. How hard could it be I thought, it's just a couple of circles and a bit of mesh.

I went to work with my trusty little helper Liberty beside me. (Sylvia - I think you have seen this photo of Liberty before!)The mesh I used was perhaps a little too large but I wanted to get it done so I just used what I had. The little flowers on it are fingernail stickers, I've been using them on all sorts of things, they look really good on mini perfume bottles, there are heaps of different kinds available and they're really inexpensive.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Well, Easter is in full swing around here! Today Liberty begged and begged to make cupcakes. Baking with her can be a bit of a trial I have to say. When she says she wants to bake what she really means is "I want to eat cake mixture".

We'll take these cupcakes to the cousins when we go there for Easter lunch on Sunday. I made a little buttercream frosting 'nest' on top of each one and it was Liberty's job to place the candied chocolate eggs on top. Of course it was a silly job to entrust her with, I caught her licking an egg and then putting it on a cake! LOL! That one was specially set aside for her, with extra icing on top so we knew exactly which one it was. After we had finished icing the cakes I put the icing bag on the bench, only to turn around two seconds later to see Liberty squeezing the last of the icing straight into her mouth! And to think she was so sick she couldn't eat anything just a few days ago!

While the cakes were baking Liberty had a little bunny party. She made that little bunny basket at kindy, and she ate all the goodies they put in it on the way home in the car on Thursday.

Friday, April 10, 2009

I made this little box for my friend Frederica's birthday the year I met her. The lid slides off and I printed a French enamel number 41 on it because that was her age, I surfed the net looking for the number, it took forever to find a 41! It's not really a roombox because the box wasn't high enough. I just wanted to make a lot of pretty things that she could take out of it and use in her dollhouse if she wanted to. Because Frederica just loves to change things around all the time (even in her 1:1 house nothing is safe!)

As it happens she's pretty much left it as it was when I gave it to her! It was fun to make all those little shabby things and best of all she loved it!

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

I took this pic of the dollhouse kitchen a few weeks ago. It will look a bit different next time you see it. There is going to be a chimney breast on the left hand wall between the two doors (where the table is now). It's going to look as though there was once an old coal range in there but now it will have a more modern oven.

It's supposed to look like a modern day house that's a bit run down, country looking with lots of vintage touches. The table was a kit from a magazine series but I made my own top for it.

I built all the kitchen units, the house came with a sink unit I didn't like, but I managed to prise the white sink off the top of it and use on the bench I made. I found a pattern in a book for the units and made them almost like the instructions said. It was the first time I had cut anything out and made it all by myself. Then I built the wall shelf all by myself!! No pattern, no instructions - sometimes I surprise myself with what I can do! I cut out the bits at our monthly club meeting, that's one of the good things about belonging to a club - they have all the power tools.

I haven't made drawers because I thought I would make baskets to go in there, just have to figure out how to make them.

The dresser was an old one I painted and papered to match everything else, not sure I like it, it looks a bit too chunky.

I don't have the house here at the moment, it's still at a friends house as she is helping me the wiring (and the chimney). And now I've looked at these pictures I'm really missing it.

Now I need your help!

Can anyone out there tell me where I can find a website to buy a nice fridge and stove, or tell me a brand name to look for. I want them to look as real as possible without being too expensive. Or find a pattern to make a fridge or stove.

Our club is having it's next show at the end of May and I really want the house to be ready to exhibit by then.

And thank you for all the get well wishes for Liberty. She seems quite a bit better today. She asked for ham and cheese sandwiches at 6am this morning and she ate them!

Monday, April 6, 2009

Today Liberty got some lovely mail from Marlies. Marlies thought Liberty should have some mail just for herself so she sent her a parcel of things that a little girl would like. And oh, yes, she loved them all.

A box of beads and a string with her name in beads already on it! There was also a cute doggy hair tie that we haven't photographed yet.

And all these sweet little things for her dollhouse. Look at those tiny boxes, so lovely! And the most beautiful little wicker pram with a tiny Brazilian doll in it. Marlies wrote in her letter that it was one of the first things she ever wickered. Liberty thought I'd said 'wicked' when I read the letter to her so now it is her 'wicked' pram! LOL!! Liberty has been very sick in the past few days, just when we thought she was over her tummy bug it came back with a vengeance. Today she was still very tired (she fell asleep on the floor without eating any dinner!) Thank you Marlies that was such a sweet thing to do, you really brightened her day!